Three UK CEO Kevin Russell today gave a glimpse of how operators are scrambling behind the scenes in the UK over who will get to carry the iPad device in Europe. “Every man and his dog is bidding for it,” he said. While Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) made an easy-enough move to sell the device through its iPhone partner AT&T (NYSE: T) in the U.S., in the UK, no partner has been announced. Apple says WiFi devices will be shipped in the UK in late March with 3G models coming in April.
At a briefing with journalists, Russell ruled Three out of that bunfight: “I don’t see 3 overstretching itself” to try to carry it. “We will carry the iPad and the iPhone in time, on the right terms,” he said, explaining that 3 prefers to concentrate on “something that others are less confident in doing. That would excite me more.”
A device like an iPad would fit well in to 3’s current usage portfolio: Data traffic remains huge on itss network, with the vast bulk of it coming through dongle usage attached to PCs and netbooks rather than handsets. As a measure of just how much is going to data, dongles account for 90 percent of 3 UK’s data traffic, said CTO Graham Baxter.
3UK still remains a distant fourth in terms of subscriber numbers in the UK. “How do we convert data into a reason to convert to 3?” Russell asled. More from Tuesday’s briefing…
—Bigger Spotify push coming: The unlimited-music service is available on HTC Hero via 3. Russell didn’t give subscriber numbers, but they are not likely to b high yet, given that the service was quietly launched in November on just one handset. Russell said 3 will be extending Spotify to “half a dozen” handsets in the next year. “We’re going to make a bigger retail push” on the service, he said. 3 and Spotify will be speaking together in Barcelona and may announce more news around the service then.
—What about e-Readers? Although 3 featured a picture of a Kindle device during the presentation, Russell told us that this was for “illustration” rather than as a way of indicating that Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is using some of 3’s network for its Kindle service – the retailer has been tight-lipped on who is providing network for its service in Europe. Russell says that 3 will move into offering at least one model of an e-Reader later this year.
—Which streaming apps are the biggest bandwidth hogs? Spotify streams take up around 100kbps; iPlayer can take up to 1600kbps. YouTube is the most popular streamed application today and weighs in at 300kbps. That number, says CTO Graham Baxter, is restricted by YouTube itself.
—Facebook is massive: No news here but some numbers from 3 on just how much it’s getting used on its network. Traffic for Facebook usage went up from 319 million page views in 2008 to 2.5 billion page views in 2009. On average, there are 19 Facebook pages viewed per day.
—Skype also still growing: 3 projects that it will carry a billion Skype minutes on its network in 2010, compared to 710 million in 2009.
Where is Android fitting into the mix? There is the HTC/Android handset that has Spotify preloaded, and there will be plenty more. “Android is important,” said Russell. Nothing on the Nexus One – 3 was reported to be on call as one of the early carriers for the device.
—Network issues on the horizon: Russell and Baxter both talked a lot about the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Orange in the UK. When the two operators merge they will have a huge amount of spectrum between them in the 1800MHz band. 3 is currently lobbying Ofcom to consider refarming this to other operators to create a more level playing field. As significantly, 3 and T-Mobile are in a JV currently to share infrastructure for 3G networks. They aim to have nearly 13,000 sites in place by October this year. “We will need to make sure that Orange is consistent with the same direction that 3 would want to be in,” were the T-Mo/Orange merger to go ahead.